LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




pHS^ 




WILLIAM MACLAY, 



United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 



1789-1791. 



V^BY 

LEWIS Rf^HARLEY, Ph.D., 

Professor of History in the Central High School, Philadelphia. 



Read at a Meeting of the Chester County, Pa., Historical 
Society, February 18, 1909. 



L3o2 



Gift 
The Society 
2 1 /if' '09 



William Maclay, United States Senator 
from Pennsylvania. 



After the Federal Constitution had been ratified by a sufficient num- 
ber of states, the different commonwealths proceeded to elect senators 
and representatives to the new Congress. Several interesting characters 
were thereby called into public life, among them being William Maclay, 
a native of Chester County. The subject of this sketch was but five 
years old, when the father led his family to the Scotch-Irish settlement 
in what is now Franklin County. Here young Maclay grew to man- 
hood and became prominent in colonial affairs. He was soon attracted 
to the upper Susquehanna region, and figured in the pioneer settlement 
of Sunbury. After the close of the Revolutionary War, probably in 
1786, he changed his residence to Harrisburg, and from this place, he 
was called to the first senate of the United States. Although the pub- 
lic career of William Maclay is identified with other portions of the 
State, Chester County claims him as a son by birth. It is, therefore, 
appropriate that the Historical Society should devote an evening to his 
achievements. This feeling led me to accept the invitation to prepare 
the paper which I now offer, — not as a complete biography of Senator 
Maclay, but merely an outline of the more important facts of his life. 

In January, 1789, the Pennsylvania Assembly chose Robert Mor- 
ris, of Philadelphia, and William Maclay, of Harrisburg, to represent 
this State in the United States Senate. As it was arranged that one- 
third of the body should retire every two years, it became necessary for 
the first Senators to draw their terms by lot. The long term of six years 
fell to Robert Morris, while William Maclay drew the short term of two 
years. Maclay grew up on the Scotch frontier of Pennsylvania, and 
had all the prejudices of the provincial settlers beyond the mountains. 
His friends have claimed for him the title of the first Democrat, for his 
opposition to the Federal policies antedated Jefferson's, who was still 
in Europe when Maclay took his seat as a senator. In the early days, 
the Senate was a secret body, but Maclay left a valuable contribution 
to political history in his "Sketches of Debate in the First Senate of 
the United States." This work throws much interesting light upon the 
deliberations of the Senate, when it was in many instances evenly di- 
vided, so that it became necessary for the Vice President to cast the de- 
ciding vote at least twenty times during the life of the first Congress. 

Morris and his colleague, Maclay, form an interesting study in prac- 
tical politics. They both took an active part in the debates of the Sen- 
ate, and they disagreed on almost every subject. Maclay, naturally a 
man of strong prejudices, distrusted Morris and often gave him a thrust 
about his unsettled accounts. He had a strong suspicion of John 
Adams, the Vice President, whom he accused of monarchical tenden- 
cies, ambitious to become the American King. He wrote of Adams : 
" I have really often looked at him with surprise mingled with con- 
tempt when he is in the chair, and no business is before the Senate. 

( 3 ) 



Instead of that sedate, easy air which I would have him possess, he will 
look on one side, then on the other, then down on the knees of his 
breeches, then dimple his visage with the most silly kind of half smile 
which I cannot well express in English. The Scotch-Irish have a word 
that fits it exactly — smudging. God forgive me for the vile thought, 
but I cannot help thinking of a monkey just put into breeches, when I 
see him betray such evident marks of self-conceit." From this brief in- 
troduction of our subject, we can at once draw the conclusion that Wil- 
liam Maclay was no passive figure in politics. He had previously faced 
the dangers of border war in Pennsylvania, while as a young man, he 
had been inured to hardship by the surveyor's life on the frontier. Com- 
bative by nature, and trained in the school of experience, he became the 
natural leader of his fellow-countrymen from central Pennsylvania, in 
opposing the measures of the new Federal administration. 

The Maclay family is traced back to the seventeenth century io 
Ireland, where a Charles Maclay is mentioned, who married, name of 
wife unknown. By this marriage, he had three sons, Owen, an officer 
in the army of James II, remained a bachelor, and died in France ; 
Charles, an officer in the same army, who was killed in a duel with a 
French soldier in Dublin ; and Henry, also an officer in the royal army, 
who fell in the Battle of the Boyne, in 1690. Charles Maclay", by a 
second wife, Jean Hamilton, had one son, John, who was the ancestor 
of the family in America. This John Maclay was born in 1680, and 
had the following children : Charles, Eleanor, and John. Charles 
Maclay, of the third generation, was born in 17 10, in county Antrim, 
Ireland. On May 30, 1734, he sailed for America, and located on a 
farm in New Garden township, Chester County. He remained here un- 
til 1742, when he settled in Hopewell township, Lancaster County, now 
Lurgan township, Franklin County. In 1733, Charles Maclay married 
Eleanor Query, daughter of William Query, of county Antrim, Ireland. 
Eleanor Query was born in 1714, and died in Lurgan township, Frank- 
lin County, July 27, 1789. Her husband died in September, 1753, and 
both are interred at Middle Spring Church graveyard. Their children 
were: John, born May 10, 1734; William, the subject of this paper, 
born July 20, 1737 ; Charles, born August 8, 1739 ; Samuel, born Janu- 
ary 7, 1 741 ; and Eleanor, born September 20, 1750. 

At the outbreak of the French and Indian War, William Maclay 
was a pupil in the classical academy of Rev. John Blair, Chester 
County. He decided to enter the military service, and his tutor gave 
him a recommendation as " a judicious young man and scholar," which 
secured him the appointment of ensign in the Pennsylvania Battalion. 
In 1758, the expedition against Fort Duquesne was planned, and Mac- 
lay enlisted a company of twenty-one men for Captain Montgomery. 
He was immediately promoted to lieutenant in the third battalion com- 
manded by Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Mercer. The Pennsylvania 
forces joined the British army under General Joseph Forbes at Carlisle. 
The colonial regiments from the South also gathered here, those from 
Virginia under the command of Washington. Indeed, Bancroft says, 
if it had not been for Washington, Forbes would never have reached 
the Ohio. On the difficult march, the enemy were encountered at Loyal 
Hanna, where a spirited battle was fought, in which Maclay dis- 
tinguished himself. Before the end of November, the army reached 
Fort Duquesne, and the place, at the suggestion of Forbes, was called 
Pittsburg. 



After t"he treaty of peace in 1763, the tide of settlement moved west- 
ward, and Poutiac organized the Indian tribes from Lake Ontario to 
Georgia in a great conspiracy to repel the English. Fort Pitt was sev- 
ered from communication with the East, and General Amherst sent 
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Bouquet to the relief of this important post. 
"William Maclay served in this expedition as lieutenant with the third 
Pennsylvania Battalion. On July 21, 1763, the army started from 
Carlisle and proceeded by way of Fort Bedford and Fort Ligonier. On 
August 5, at Bushy Run, near Braddock's field, the Indians made a 
savage attack, and the army engaged in battle for nearly two days. The 
strategy of Colonel Bouquet saved his troops, and he led them on to 
Fort Pitt, where he erected a stone redoubt, which stands to this day, 
bearing the inscription, "Colonel Bouquet, A. D. 1764." The next 
year Colonel Bouquet led an expedition into Ohio, in which William 
Maclay served as lieutenant in the regiment commanded by the Hon. 
John Penn. In this campaign, Maclay was stationed with a portion of 
the Pennsylvania regiment on the line of the stockade forts on the route 
to Fort Pitt, as lieutenant commanding a company. 

In the intervals of his military service, William Maclay found time 
to study law, and on April 28, 1760, was admitted to the bar of York 
County ; although it is likely that he never engaged actively in the du- 
ties of the profession. After the close of the French wars, he turned 
his attention to surveying, and this opens a new chapter in his career. 
The officers of the Pennsylvania regiment commanded by Hon. John 
Penn, who had served under Colonel Bouquet, had, in 1764, made a 
written agreement to apply for a tract of land in central Pennsylvania. 
Accordingly on April 30, 1765, they forwarded their application to the 
Proprietors. They proposed to embody themselves in a compact settle- 
ment at some distance from the inhabited part of the province, " where 
by their industry, they might procure a comfortable subsistence for 
themselves, and by their arms, union and increase, become a powerful 
barrier to the Province." They further represented that the land thus 
far purchased from the Indians did not afford any situation convenient 
for their purpose ; but the confluence of the two branches of the Sus- 
quehanna at Shamokin ( Sunbury ) did. They therefore prayed the 
Proprietors to make a purchase, and to grant them 40,000 acres of arable 
land on the West Branch of the Susquehanna. On November 5, 1768, 
a treaty was made with the Indians at Fort Stanwix by Thomas and 
Richard Penn, by which a tract of 24,000 acres was acquired along the 
West Branch, to be divided among the petitioners in distinct surveys. 
In March, 1769, Samuel Maclay, for his brother William, surveyed 
8,000 acres in what is now Union County ; 6,096 acres on Chillisquaque 
Creek and 9,904 acres on Bald Eagle Creek. In the meantime, William 
Maclay had been appointed deputy surveyor of the Province. It was in 
this capacity that he surveyed the site of Mifflintown, on the Juniata 
River, April 2, 1766. He soon became a prominent land holder in this 
neighborhood, being assessed in 1767 for three hundred acres. In 1769, 
he married Mary, daughter of John Harris, Jr., the founder of Harris- 
burg. Maclay brought his wife to Mifflintown, where they resided for 
several years. He was appointed Justice of the Peace, May 21, 1770, 
but in the following year, his name disappears from the list of residents. 
In the interval between 1763 and 1770, he also paid a visit to England, 
where he had an interview with Thomas Penn, one of the Proprietaries, 
relative to the survey of lands on the frontiers of the Province. From 



6 

this time until the end of the proprietary government, Maclay served 
as representative of the Penn family in all matters pertaining to sur- 
veys on the frontier. 

The next chapter in the career of William Maclay associates his 
name with the formation of Northumberland County and the new set- 
tlement at Sunbury. As many of the older tov/ns of England had their 
beginning in Roman forts, so Sunbury dates its origin from the erection 
of Fort Augusta, on the east bank of the Susquehanna, just below the 
junction of the North and West branches of that river. This fort, 
built in 1756, stood at the upper end of the present town of Sunbury, 
its artillery covering the country in every direction, and protecting the 
lower settlements from the enemy. It was staunchly built and equipped 
with twelve cannon and two swivels, while seven blunderbusses were 
included in its armament. The fort occupied a position of great strate- 
gic importance, completely blocking the advance of the French into 
the Susquehanna region. William Maclay seems to have been com- 
mander of Fort Augusta in 1770, being succeeded before the close of 
that year by Colonel Hunter. 

The county of Northumberland was organized March 12, 1772, out 
of Lancaster, Cumberland, Berks, Northampton and Bedford Counties, 
It was directed by the colonial authorities that the courts should be 
held at Fort Augusta until a court house and other public buildings- 
could be erected. A committee consisting of William Maclay, Samuel 
Hunter, John Loudon, Joseph Wallis, and Robert Moody, were ap- 
pointed to purchase a site on which to erect the court house and jail. 
People crowded into this region so rapidly that it was soon necessary to 
form a regular town. On June 16, 1772, the Governor issued an order 
to Surveyor-General John Lukens and William Maclay, deputy sur- 
veyor, to lay out a town for Northumberland County at Fort Augusta, 
to be called Sunbury. The streets were arranged at right angles on the 
plan of Philadelphia, and the choicest lots were reserved for the Pro- 
prietaries. William Maclay erected in 1775 a pretentious mansion at 
the northwest corner of Arch and Front Streets, Sunbury. The back 
part of the lot was stockaded during the Revolution. Fithian's Journal, 
1775, says of Sunbury that all the bouses, one hundred in number, are 
of logs, but William Maclay's, which is of stone, and large and elegant. 
This property was owned until recently by Hon. S. P. Wolverton, mem- 
ber of Congress. After making his residence at Sunbury, Maclay be- 
came an extensive landowner, being assessed in 1785 as follows r 
Augusta township, 1,050 acres, Buffalo township, 120 acres, and Potter 
township, 1,500 acres. 

On the organization of the county of Northumberland in 1772, 
William Maclay was honored with several important public offices. On 
March 24, 1772, he was appointed justice of the peace, and the .same 
year, he received commissions as Prothonotary, Clerk of the Orphans' 
Court and Recorder of Deeds. On September 15, 1783, he was ap- 
pointed to examine the navigation of the Susquehanna River ; to de- 
termine whether any part of Lake Erie bordered on Pennsylvania ; also 
to view the Delaware River, and report on the best mode of removing 
every obstruction. He was selected, February 23, 1784, as a commis- 
sioner to hold a treaty with the Indians claiming the unpurchased terri- 
tory within the limits of the State -, also in 1785, to distribute goods to 
the Six Nations of Indians at Tioga. The state authorities constantly 
recognized William Maclay's abilities in dealing with the Indians. This 



is shown by his appointment on February 23, 1784, with John Atlee 
and Francis Johnson, as commissioners to treat with the Indians for the 
unpurchased lands within the borders of the State. The commission- 
ers met the chiefs of the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix, New York, Oc- 
tober 24, 1784, and secured for the State by treaty the title to land now 
forming fourteen entire counties and portions of others. They brought 
for the Indians a valuable cargo as compensation. The Indians took a 
day to deliberate, and replied through a chief of the Senecas, that it 
was not their wish to part with so much of their hunting grounds, and 
they pointed out a line which they hoped would be satisfactory. The 
commissioners rejected this proposition, and oflFered $4,000 worth of 
goods and the privilege of hunting to the Indians. An additional 
$1,000 was finally promised and the deeds were signed. The commis- 
sioners then proceeded to Sunbury and Beaver to confer with the VVyan- 
dots and Delawares, who had a claim on the lands. They also con- 
firmed the sale. Maclay's correspondence with the State authorities 
during these years reveals a great interest in Indian afi"airs ; he also 
regularly carried on his vocation as surveyor while residing at Sunbury. 
On July 23, 1776, he wrote to Richard Peters, Secretary of the War Of- 
fice, that he had searched with some success for flints, and sent some 
specimens with Mr. Bell, which were pronounced by gunsmiths supe- 
rior to imported flints. He says : " The vein or quarry appears inex- 
haustible, and is situated along the banks of Penn's Creek, ten miles 
distant from Sunbury." This was near the town of New Berlin, in 
Union County. Mr. Maclay's find was never utilized by Congress or 
the War Ofiice. There was a factory for boring gun barrels in that lo- 
cality, but as to the manufacture or preparation of flints, history is si- 
lent. 

In the Revolution, Maclay actively supported the American cause, 
and he marched with the militia to the seat of war. He took part in 
the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and served as assistant commis- 
sary on his return to Sunbury. In this capacity, he forwarded military 
supplies to the forts in the Wyoming Valley, during the warfare in that 
region. 

The next chapter in the life of William Maclay is connected with 
the struggle between the authorities of Pennsylvania and Connecticut 
for possession of the Wyoming Valley. This conflict grew out of 
the overlapping territorial grants made to William Penn and the 
province of Connecticut, The Connecticut charter conveyed to that 
colony a strip of territory as wide as the colony and extending through 
from Narragansett Bay to the Pacific Ocean, bounded on the south by 
the forty-first parallel. The charter to William Penn fixed the northern 
boundary of his province at the forty-second parallel. As Connecticut 
became thickly settled, many of her people sought new homes farther 
west. It was then that they began to lay claim to a strip of northern 
Penn.sylvania fully a degree in width. As early as 1750, parties of ex- 
plorers had crossed the Blue Ridge and gazed for the first time into the 
beautiful valley of Wyoming. What they saw has been described in 
the following language : 

" They never forgot that scene. Nor will our race ever look upon 
such a scene again. The valley was about twenty-one miles long and 
three miles wide. The broad, rippling Susquehanna wound through it, 
now burying itself in groves of sycamores and again flashing into the 
sunlight in wide expanses. There were woodland and meadow, level 



plaiffs and lowland plains, and the remains of ancient fortifications of a 
vanished race. Mountain ranges bounded every side. The quail 
whistled in the meadows, the grouse drummed in the woods, and the 
wild ducks nested along the river. The deer and elk wandered at will 
from the plains to the mountains. The streams that poured down ra- 
vines to join the river were full of trout, and in the spring large schools 
of shad came up the Susquehanna. Wild grapes and plums grew in 
the woods, and here and there on the plains the Indians had cultivated 
tracts of corn. It was an ideal spot, the natural home of the hunter 
and the poet, a combination of peace, duty, abundance, and wild life 
such as is seldom found." 

As early as 1753, the Susquehanna Company was formed in Con- 
necticut, the object being to colonize Wyoming. In 1762, a colony of 
two hundred Connecticut farmers entered the Valley and began a regu- 
lar settlement. A struggle was now at hand between the Penns and 
Connecticut, known as the Pennamite War. The Proprietaries dis- 
puted the right of the Connecticut people to settle in the Wyoming re- 
gion, while the Susquehanna Company sent Colonel Zebulon Butler to 
Wyoming, instructing him to hold it against the Penns. In 1775, Con- 
necticut established a regular government in the disputed area, by the 
organization of Westmoreland County. The controversy lasted until 
December 30, 1782, when a Federal court decided that all the lands 
within the chartered boundaries of Pennsylvania, which Connecticut 
had claimed, belonged to the former State. Connecticut accepted the 
verdict, and the Pennamite War was at an end. The woes of this re- 
gion were rendered more bitter by the Wyoming Massacre in the Revo- 
lution, when the Tories and Indians completed a desolation which 
thrilled the heart of two continents. 

The miseries of this period are vividly described in the letters of 
William Maclay, who took an active part in the operations, both against 
the Connecticut invaders and the Tories. On April 2, 1773, he wrote 
the colonial authorities, urging the completion of the jail at Sunbury 
as a place for confining the outlaws from Wyoming. The Assembly at 
once appropriated eight hundred pounds to the county of Northumber- 
land for building a court house and prison. It was completed in 1776, 
a stone and brick structure, one part being used for a court house and 
the other for a prison. On the open square in front of it, stood the 
whipping post, a barbarous instrument in the penal system of the 
eighteenth century. In this letter, Maclay portrayed the conditions in 
Wyoming in most vivid language. He said: "If Hell is justly con- 
sidered as the rendezvous of rascals, we cannot entertain a doubt of 
Wyoming being the place. Burned hands, cut ears, etc., are considered 
as the certain certificates of superior merit ; we have certain accounts of 
their having had several meetings lately to choose a sovereign and set- 
tle the State, for it seems they have not now any dependence on the 
government of Connecticut. The time of the descent on the West 
Branch, Fort Augusta, etc., is now fixed for May next. I have no 
doubt but the desperate tempers of these people will hurry them into 
some tragical affair which will at last arouse our government, when it 
may be too late to repair the mischief done by them." The correspond- 
ence of William Maclay indicates that during these years of bloodshed 
and confusion in the Wyoming Valley, he was the close adviser of the 
State government. On September 22, 1775, he notified the authorities 
at Philadelphia that a Connecticut magistrate was about to pilot three 



hundred colonists down the West Branch, the purpose being to en- 
croach upon the Pennsylvania settlements. Maclay, with his family, as 
well as many other Northumberland people, took refuge at Paxtaug, 
further down the Susquehanna River. On July 12, 1778, he wrote from 
Paxtang to the State Executive Council, describing the condition of af- 
fairs. At this time, the desolation of Wyoming was complete, and the 
people were abandoning Northumberland County to the Tories and In- 
dians. He said : "I left Sunbury and almost all my property on Wed- 
nesday last. I will not trouble you with a recital of the inconveniences 
I suffered, while I brought my family by water to this place. I never 
in my life saw such scenes of distress. The river and the roads leading 
down to it were covered with men, women and children, flying for their 
lives, many without any property at all, and none who had not left the 
greatest part behind. In short, Northumberland County is broken up, 
Colonel Hunter only remained, using his utmost endeavors to rally 
some of the inhabitants, and to make a stand, however short, against 
the enemy." Maclay declared that Wyoming was totally abandoned, 
scarcely a single family remaining between that place and Sunbury. 
He urged the Council to send reinforcements at once to protect the Sus- 
quehanna country from the ravages of the Indians. On April 27, 1779, 
he submitted a proposition to the Council for employing dogs to hunt 
the savages. He presented the following arguments to sustain this 
view : "I have sustained some ridicule for a scheme which I have 
long recommended, namely, that of hunting the scalping parties of In- 
dians with horsemen and dogs. The imminent services which dogs 
have rendered to our people in some late instances, seems to open 
people's eyes to a method of this kind. We know that dogs will follow 
them, that they will discover them, and even seize them, when hunted 
on by their masters. History informs us that it was in this manner that 
the Indians were extirpated out of the whole country in South America. 
It may be objected that we have not proper dogs. It is true that every 
new thing must be learned ; but we have, even now, dogs that will fol- 
low them, and the arrantest cur will both follow and fight in company. 
I cannot help being of opinion that a single troop of light horse, at- 
tended by dogs ( and who might occasionally carry a footman behind 
them, that the pursuit might not be interrupted by morasses or moun- 
tains j, under honest and active officers, would destroy more Indians 
than five thousand men stationed in forts along the frontiers. I am not 
altogether singular in this opinion. Could not such a thing be tried ? 
On July 26, 1779, Maclay wrote from Paxtang to President Reed that 
he had given his large house at Sunbury to the authorities as a place 
for depositing the military stores. He asked for a small guard of mili- 
tia in order to render this magazine secure. Again, on July 30, 1779, 
he wrote the Council imploring help. He said ; " I need not ask you 
what is to be done, Help ! Help ! or the towns of Sunbury and North- 
umberland must fall ; our whole frontier laid open, and the communi- 
cation with General Sullivan's army cut off." From Maclay 's letter to 
the Council on August 5, 1779, we infer that he had returned from 
Paxtang to Sunbury. In this communication, he declares that the 
martial spirit was very active on the frontiers of Pennsylvania. The 
threatened attack upon Northumberland had the desired effect of arous- 
ing the inhabitants of Lancaster, Cumberland and York Counties. Vol- 
unteers poured into Sunbury to the number of five hundred. The 
country, however, was ravaged on every side, the enemy being amaz- 



ingly fond of plunder, and what they could not carry away was de- 
stroyed by fire. In his letter to President Reed on April 2, 1780, he 
asked for troops to dislodge the Indians along Fishing and Muncy 
Creeks, He expressed regret that all their troops were not Pennsylva- 
nians. Speaking of the mixture of nationalties in that region, he said : 
" This is a strange, divided quarter, — Whig, Tory, Yankee, Pennsylva- 
nia Dutch, Irish, and English, are strangely blended. I must confess, 
I begin to be national too, and most sincerely believe every public inter- 
est of America will be safer in the hands of Americans, than with any 
others." 

I have reviewed William Maclay's correspondence at considerable 
length, as it throws much light on a very important period of Pennsyl- 
vania history. His letters reveal the heroism and sufferings of the fron- 
tier settlers during the years of savage warfare. These brave pioneers 
successfully resisted the Tories and Indians, and thus saved eastern 
Pennsylvania from a desolation like that which swept over the Wyoming 
Valley. 

With the return of peace in central Pennsylvania, William Maclay 
began his legislative career, which we will now consider. From 1781 to 
1785, he represented Northumberland County in the Pennsylvania Assem- 
bly, while in 1786, he was a member of the Supreme Executive Council 
of the State. In the meantime, January 22, 1785, he was commissioned 
justice of the peace in Northumberland County. William Maclay's 
brothers were also active in public life, John being a member of the con- 
ference held in Carpenter's Hall, which resolved that " they, in behalf 
of the people of Pennsylvania, were willing to concur in a vote of Con- 
gress declaring the United Colonies free and independent States." John 
Maclay served three terms in the Pennsylvania Legislature, 1790, 1792, 
and 1794. Samuel Maclay, also a brother of William Maclay, was a 
member of the Pennsylvania Senate from 1797 to 1802, and was chosen 
Speaker of that body. He was elected to the United States Senate in 
1802, and retired with the expiration of his term in 1809. 

The election of William Maclay to the United States Senate 
brought to that body a most interesting personage. He was six feet 
and three inches in height, light complexion, while his brown hair was 
tied behind or "clubbed." A writer states that "he used to watch 
Mr. Maclay wearing a suit of white flannel, with lace rufiles, walking 
up and down the river bank at Harrisburg, and he thought he had 
never seen such a dignified, majestic old gentleman." He added : " I 
was always half afraid of him — he seemed to awe me into insig- 
nificance." From the beginning of his Senatorial term, William Mac- 
lay became a strong opponent of Federal measures, while his colleague, 
Robert Morris, zealously defended the administration. According to 
some historians, the attitude of Maclay had an important bearing on 
the organization of the Democratic party. Dr. Egle expresses the fol- 
lowing views on this subject : " His election to this body raised him 
upon a higher plane of political activity ; but contact with the Federal 
chiefs of the Senate only strengthened his political convictions, which, 
formed by long intercouse with the people of middle Pennsylvania, 
were intensely Democratic. He began to differ with the opinions of 
President Washington very early in the session ; he did not approve of 
the state and ceremony attendant upon the intercourse of the President 
with Congress ; he flatly objected to the presence of the President in the 
Senate while business was being transacted, and in the Senate boldly 



II 

spoke against his policy in the immediate presence of President Wash- 
ington. The New England historians, Hildreth and Goodrich, repute 
Thomas JeflFerson as the ' efficient promoter at the beginning, and 
father and founder of the Democratic part3\' Contemporary records, 
however, show beyond the shadow of a doubt that this responsibility or 
honor, in whatever light it may be regarded, cannot be shifted from the 
shoulders or taken from the laurels of Pennsylvania statesmanship. 
Before Jefferson's return from Europe, William Maclay assumed an in- 
dependent position, and in his short career of two years in the Senate, 
propounded ideas and gathered about him elements to form the opposi- 
tion which developed with the meeting of Congress at Philadelphia on 
October 24, 1791, in a division of the people into two great parties, the 
Federalists and Democrats." 

Maclay' s opinions of men and affairs in the Senate are recorded in 
his journal beginning April 24, 1789, and ending on March 3, 1791. 
Many of his observations are highly colored, being written in the even- 
ing immediately after the exciting debates in the Senate. The journal 
has been published in two forms, as follows : (i) "Sketches of De- 
bate in the First Senate of the United States, in 1789-90-91. By Wil- 
liam Maclay. Edited by George W. Harris, Harrisburg, 1880"; (2) 
Journal of William Maclay, United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 
1789-1791. Edited by Edgar S. Maclay, A. M., New- York: D. Ap- 
pleton & Company, 1890." We shall now proceed to review William 
Maclay' s career as a Senator from the pages of the Journal itself. His 
residence in New York city as put down in the Register for 1789, was at 
Mr. Vandolsom's, near the Bear Market. From his correspondence we 
learn that he had reached the seat of government several weeks before 
the organization of Congress was effected. 

The first part of Maclay 's journal is devoted to his comments on 
titles and ceremonies. His fault-finding disposition at this time was, 
no doubt, aggravated by an attack of rheumatism from which he was 
suffering. "Ceremonies," he exclaimed, "endless ceremonies, the 
whole business of the day ! " Complaining of the monarchical tenden- 
cies, he said : "I entertain no doubt but that many people are aiming 
with all their force to establish a splendid Court with all the pomp of 
majesty. Alas ! poor Washington, if you are taken in this snare ! 
How will the gold become dim ! Republicans are borne down by fashion 
and a fear of being charged with a want of respect to General Wash- 
ington. If there is treason in the wish I retract it, but would to God 
this same General Washington were in heaven ! We would not then 
have him brought forward as the constant cover to every unconstitu- 
tional and irrepublican act." Maclay criticized the formalities of in- 
auguration day, and implored the goddess of etiquette while he de- 
scribed the occasion. When the question of a proper title for the 
President was before the Senate, he spoke with feeling on the subject, 
and opposed all appellations except the simple form given in the Con- 
stitution, President of the United States. He took an active part in the 
debates on the first tariff when that measure reached the Senate. In 
order to fully understand the following extracts from his Journal, it 
should be remembered that he advocated protective duties ; 

" May 10. — A Philadelphia merchant was in with Mr. Wynkoop. 
He alleged that Mr. Fitzsimmons delayed the impost bill while his 
own Indiamen should arrive, for it seems he has more than one. 

■' May 21. — An idea has gone abroad that the mercantile interest 



12 

has been exerted to delay this bill. The merchants have undoubtedly- 
regulated the prices of their goods agreeable to the proposed duties, so 
that the consumers of dutied articles really pay the whole of the im- 
post. 

" May 25. — I fear that our own impost will be rendered in a great 
measure unproductive. This business is the work of the New England 
men. They want the article of molasses quite struck out, or at least 
greatly reduced ; therefore they will strike at everything, or, to place 
it in a different point of view, almost every part will be proscribed 
either by one or other of those who choose to be opponents, for every 
conspirator must be indulged in the sacrifice of his particular enemy. 

" May 26. — The impost was taken up. All ran smoothly until we 
came to the molasses. Till quarter after three did the New England 
men beat this ground, even to the baiting of the hook that caught the 
fish that went to buy the molasses. The motion was to reduce it to 
four cents from five. The vote for four cents carried. All the argu- 
ments of the other House were repeated over and over. 

" May 28. — Senate met. Cables, cordage, etc., came up. They 
stood at seventy-five cents. Mr. Langdon (New Hampshire) spoke 
warmly against this. Mr. Morris, of Pennsylvania, moved a reduction 
to fifty cents. I urged so much that he said sixty. This was seconded. 
I had to show some pointed reason why I urged sixty. Indeed, it was 
much against my will that any reduction took place. I was up four 
times in all. We carried it, however, at sixty. 

We passed on with little interruption until we got to twine. Mr. 
Lee ( Virginia) kept us an hour and a quarter on this business, because 
the Virginians had hitherto imported their nets from Britain. Once for 
all, I may remark of him ( Mr. Lee) that he has given opposition to 
every article, especially the protecting duties. He declares openly 
against the principle of them. Mr. Grayson ( Virginia, a steady and 
consistent opponent of the Constitution ) declares against all impost as 
the most unjust and oppressive mode of taxation. 

Now came the postponed article of loaf sugar. Lee labored with 
spite and acrimony in this business. He said the loaf sugar of America 
was bad. It was lime and other vile compositions. He had broken a 
spoon in trying to dissolve and separate it, ' and so I ( Lee ) must go on 
breaking my spoon and three millions of people must be taxed to sup- 
port half a dozen people in Philadelphia.' He pronounced this sentence, 
especially the part about the spoon, with so tremulous an accent and 
so forlorn an aspect as would have excited even Stoics to laughter. 
There was a laugh, but no retort on him. I supported the motion by 
showing that the sugar-baking business was of importance, as it gave 
employment to many other artificers, — the mason, bricklayer, carpenter, 
and all the artificers employed in building, for they had to build largely. 
I thought this as plain a subject as could come before the House, and 
yet we divided, and the Vice President gave us the casting vote. 

" May 29. — Now came salt. Up rose Mr. Lee, of the Ancient Do- 
minion. He gave us an account of the great revenue derived from salt in 
France, England, and all the world. He concluded a lengthy harangue 
with a motion for twelve cents, which in his opinion was vastly too low. 
What shall I think of Lee, this Ishmael of the House? He seemed 
disposed to destroy the whole effect of the impost bill on every other ar- 
ticle. The tax on salt he knows must be odious, and this he is for 
doubling at the first word. He is a great advocate for an excise. If I 



13 

really wished to destroy the new Constitution, to injure it to the utmost 
of my power, I would follow exactly the line of conduct he has pur- 
sued. Far be it, however, from me to say this of him. People em- 
ploy the same means for very different ends, and such is the vanity of 
human opinion that the same object is often aimed at by means directly 
opposite. 

"June 2. — After some preliminary business, proceeded on the im- 
post bill without much opposition till we came to an enumeration of fif- 
teen or sixteen articles which all stood at seven and a half per cent. 
The most of these articles stood in the old protecting duties of Penn- 
sylvania at twelve and a half per cent. I feared much the spirit of re- 
duction would get into the opposers of the impost, and that they would 
be for lowering everything. From this sole motive I would have an 
augmentation, by way of securing the duty where it was. However, 
I had better ground. I set out with naming over the greater part of the 
articles on which the protecting duties of Pennsylvania were over 
twelve and a half per cent., and thirteen per cent, in New York. I 
reasoned from the effect of these duties in promoting the manufacture. 
But by the present duties the manufactures would stand on worse 
ground by five per cent, than they had done under the State laws ; that 
although the United States were not absolutely obliged to make good 
the engagements of the States to individuals, yet, as individuals had 
embarked their property in these manufactures, depending on the State 
laws, I thought it wrong to violate these laws without absolute neces- 
sity. I was, as usual, opposed by the Southern people. 

"June II. — Butler ( South Carolina) flamed away and threatened 
a dissolution of the Union, with regard to his State, as sure as God was 
in the firmament ! He scattered his remarks over the whole impost bill, 
calling it partial, oppressive, etc., and solely calculated to oppress South 
Carolina ; and yet ever and anon declaring how clear of local views, 
how candid and dispassionate he was. He degenerated into mere dec- 
lamation. His state would live or die glorious, etc. We, however, got 
through by three o'clock." 

Thus on June ii the work on the impost bill was finished. After 
the adoption of a few amendments, the measure was passed, and on July 
4 it was signed by the President. 

Among the most interesting pages of Maclay's Journal are those 
dealing with the funding and assumption of the debts, and the location 
of the seat of government. These measures were carried through by 
means of a compromise, which provided that if the Southern members 
in Congress would vote for assumption, the national government should 
be removed from New York to Philadelphia for ten years, and after that 
to a city to be built on the Potomac, Maclay relates in a graphic man- 
ner the struggle over these measures in the Senate. He was interested 
in the question of the seat of government several weeks before Congress 
assembled. On March 13, 1789, he wrote to Judge Yeates, of Lancas- 
ter : " Sir, I consider it almost certain that the permanent residence of 
Congress will be agitated at the ensuing session, desirous as I am to 
bring forward information from every part of Pennsylvania to throw 
light on this important subject. You may guess my mortification at re- 
ceiving no answer to my letters on this head from Lancaster. Let it suf- 
fice to say that you have been wrong, and be no longer so, but send me 
the information which I requested. But you should not stop here. Mr. 
Hamilton should be spoken to and he should furnish some member of 



H 

Congress with proposals under his hand relating to the terms on which 
he would give grounds for public buildings, and let lots for private 
persons. With all the pains you may take, it is possible you may not 
succeed, but without pains you need not expect it." Four days later, 
the corporation and citizens of Lancaster addressed a letter to Congress 
urging the claims of that city as the seat of government. They de- 
scribed the city, its advantages, industries, prices of provisions, etc., 
and emphasized its central position. On March 23, 1789, Judge Yeates 
wrote at considerable length to Senator Maclay, urging the claims of 
his city. He said : "It strikes me that the cardinal point first to be 
discussed will be whether a seaport or an inland, central situation is 
most eligible under the general interests of the Union at large. If the 
first should be preferred, we have then no pretensions to the honor ; if 
the latter, we submit our claims with due deference to the wisdom of 
Congress. We offer them an inland town in a considerable degree of 
improvement, a well-cultivated and fertile country, a healthy situation 
and inhabitants industrious." On August 25, 1789, Maclay presented 
to the Senate the plan and description of Lancaster. He also nomi- 
nated Wright's Ferry, Yorktown, Carlisle, Harrisburg, Reading and 
Germantown as eligible sites for the Federal capital. Several mem- 
bers, in order to try Maclay, insisted on Harrisburg. He assured them 
that of two hundred acres which he had near that town, the government 
should have one hundred if the capital went there. On the other hand, 
he declared that his colleague, Morris, seemed to be bent on one object, 
" to get the Federal residence to Trenton." Countercharges were then 
made against the Pennsylvania Senators : that Morris favored the Falls 
of Trenton because he owned large tracts of land in that vicinity ; and 
on the other hand that Maclay owned land at Harrisburg, and, there- 
fore, wanted the capital on the Susquehanna. It soon became appar- 
ent that the location of the Capital would have to be compromised with 
the more important question of funding and assuming the State debts. 
This was finally done, and on July 16, a bill was passed fixing the tem- 
porary residence of the government for ten years at Philadelphia, and 
then a permanent residence on the Potomac. The South had won the 
Capital by agreeing to vote for assumption. Maclay declared that the 
whole affair was a corrupt bargain. He said : " The President of the 
United States has, in my opinion, had a great influence in this business. 
The game was played by him and his adherents of Virginia and Mary- 
land between New York and Philadelphia, to give one of those places 
the temporary residence, but the permanent residence on the Potomac. 
I found a demonstration that this was the case, and that New York 
would have accepted the temporary residence if we did not, but I did 
not then see so clearly that the abominations of the funding system and 
the assumption were so intimately connected with it. Alas ! that the 
affection, nay, almost adoration of the people, should meet so unworthy 
a return. Here are their best interests sacrificed to the vain whim of 
fixing Congress and a great commercial town so opposite to the genius 
of the Southern planter, on the Potomac, and the President has be- 
come, in the hands of Hamilton, the dish-clout of every dirty specula- 
tion, as his name goes to wipe away blame and silence all murmuring." 
On July 20, Senator Maclay spoke at length against the plan of fund- 
ing and assuming the debts. He contended that speculators had pur- 
chased the certificates below par, and, therefore, it was wrong for Con- 
gress to fund the debt at face value. He opposed funding on general 



15 

principles, regarding it wrong for the present generation to charge 
debts upon posterity. He believed that the western lands would pro- 
vide an ample revenue for discharging the expenses of the war. He 
said : " Thus no one will sustain loss. Substantial justice will be done, 
and the public expectation will be satisfied. But to bind down the pub- 
lic by an irredeemable debt with such sources of payment in our power, 
is equall}^ absurd as shackling the hands and feet with fetters rather than 
walking at liberty." He declared that the vote in the Senate on fund- 
ing and assumption put wrinkles of disappointment in his face. After 
these measures had been adopted, Maclay was convinced that Hamilton 
directed everything. In scorn, he dated his letters " Hamiltonopolis," 
and referred to the Secretary of the Treasury as " his Holiness." He 
felt confident that Hamilton was turning the Constitution into an in- 
strument of despotism, and wrote : " My mind revolts, in many in- 
stances, against the Constitution of the United States. Indeed, I am 
afraid it will turn out the vilest of all traps that ever was set to ensnare 
the freedom of an unsuspecting people." 

Besides observations on affairs of state, Maclay' s Journal is bright- 
ened here and there with sparkling wit ; or occasionally when the 
rheumatism torments him, he can see nothing but ultimate fail- 
ure in republican institutions and universal wickedness among public 
men. On July 20, 1789, he was compelled by illness to ask a leave of 
absence for three weeks. When suffering with the tortures of pain, he 
grew pessimistic and wrote the following apostrophe to death : " Death, 
Death, thou art a solemn messenger, and will take us all in rotation ! 
But let me pause. What art thou ? I have been so ill that I would 
have swallowed thee in an anodyne. Yes, when our joys leave us, 
when p^n possesses all our feelings, thou art the grand composer of all 
our miseries, the last potion in the cup of life ; and surely it need not 
be called a bitter one, for none ever complained after swallowing the 
draught. How little of the sweet and how deeply dashed with gall is 
the diet of life ! Passes there a day in which we taste not of it ? " 
His friends deluged him with cures for rheumatism, the following be- 
ing the most characteristic : 

" I. A teaspoonful of the flour of brimstone taken every morning be- 
fore breakfast. General St. Clair and Mr. Milligan both relieved by it. 
Note. — They are both Scotchmen. 

2. Assafoetida laid on hot coals and held to the nose. 

3. Cider in which a hot iron has been quenched." 

Maclay, according to the Journal, occasionally tried his hand at lit- 
erary composition. He speaks of writing a drama under the character 
of an "Old Soldier and Irishman." Washington treated Maclay with 
uniform kindness, giving him the use of the President's box at the 
theatre, and frequently inviting him to dinner. After one of these oc- 
casions, he wrote the following description of John Adams: "God- 
dess of nature, forgive me if I centure thee for that thou madest him 
not a tailor, so full of small attentions is he, and so well qualified does 
he seem to adjust the etiquette of loops and buttons. But stay, per- 
haps I wrong thee. So miserably does he measure politics, and so un- 
mercifully and unskillfuUy would he play the shears of government in 
cutting out royal robes and habiliments, that it may justly be doubted 
whether the measure of his understanding be adequate to the adjusting 
the proportions of the back, belly, and breeches of the human form 
agreeably to the rules of an experienced habit maker." His description 



i6 

of Jefferson, as he appeared at the various State functions, is related in 
the Journal, as follows : 

"Jefferson is a slender man ; has rather the air of stiffness in his 
manner ; his clothes seem too small for him ; he sits in a lounging man- 
ner, on one hip commonly, and with one of his shoulders elevated much 
above the other ; his face has a sunny aspect ; his whole figure has a 
loose, shackling air. He had a rambling, vacant look, and nothing of 
that firm, collected deportment which I expected would dignify the 
presence of a secretary or minister. I looked for gravity, but a laxity 
of manner seemed shed about him. He spoke almost without ceasing. 
But even his discourse partook of his personal demeanor. It was loose 
and shambling, and yet he scattered information wherever he went, and 
some even brilliant sentiments sparkled from him. The information 
which he gave us concerning foreign ministers, etc., was all high- 
spiced. He had been long enough abroad to catch the tone of European 
folly. He gave us a sentiment which seemed rather to savor of quaint- 
ness : ' It is better to take the highest of the lowest than the lowest 
of the highest.' Translation : ' It is better to appoint a charge with a 
handsome salary than a minister plenipotentiary with a small one.' " 

Maclay realized as early as January, 1791, that he would not be re- 
turned to the Senate, in fact, he said : "I will receive no support from 
the Republican party, for there is not a man of them who is not aiming 
at a six-dollar prize, and my place is the best chance in the wheel." He 
compared his experience in Congress to a walk among briars and thorns, 
and being blessed with affluence, he wished to return to private life. 
On March 3, 1791, his senatorial term ended, and the Journal closes 
with this entry : " As I left the Hall, I gave it a look with that kind of 
satisfaction which a man feels on leaving a place where he has'been ill 
at ease, being fully satisfied that many a culprit has served two years 
at the wheelbarrow without feeling half the pain and mortification that 
I experienced in my honorable station." Senator Maclay's place was 
not filled during the first session of the second Congress ; but on Feb- 
ruary 28, 1792, Albert Gallatin was elected to fill the vacancy. Galla- 
tin took his seat in October, 1793, but was declared ineligible for want of 
nine years' citizenship. The seat remained vacant until April 2, 1794, 
when James Ross was elected, and sworn in the same month. 

On the expiration of his senatorial term, William Maclay imme- 
diately returned to Harrisburg, where he had an estate of two hundred 
acres. Most of the land owned by him is now included within the 
limits of that city. At one time the low ground, fronting the State 
Capitol, between Second and Third Streets, and from Pine Street to the 
ridge northeast of Harrisburg, was a dense swamp, whose edges were 
so thickly beset with tangled briers that, in the language of an old citi- 
zen, "the place was almost impenetrable to the dogs." This region 
was familiarly known as " Maclay's Swamp," from the owner of the 
land. As early as March 3, 1784, John Harris, father-in-law of Wil- 
liam Maclay, proposed to lay out a town of two hundred lots on the 
high ground above his residence at Harris' Ferry, the lots to contain a 
quarter of an acre each. After the formation of Dauphin County, 
March 4, 1785, William Maclay proceeded to lay out the town of Har- 
risburg, as proposed by his father-in-law. He made a draft of the 
place, and drew up the conveyances from John Harris to the commis- 
sioners. It was incorporated as a borough, April 13, 1791. In 1791, 
Maclay erected a mansion in Harrisburg at the corner of Front and 



17 

South streets. He continued to reside here until the time of his death, 
when the property finally passed into the hands of the Harrisburg 
Academy. John Lyon, of Harrisburg, who married Jane, daughter of 
William Maclay, in settling his father-in-law's estate, furnished the 
deed of conveyance for the ground on which the Capitol building now 
stands. 

William Maclay' s public activities did not end with his retirement 
from the Senate, as the following record shows : member of assembly, 
1795 and 1803 ; presidential elector, 1796 ; associate judge of Dauphin 
County, 1801 to 1803. He died on April 16, 1804, and was buried in 
the Paxtang church graveyard, three miles from Harrisburg. The fol- 
lowing were his children by marriage with Mary Harris : John, born 
Feb. 5, 1770 ; Eliza, born Feb. 16, 1772 ; Eleanor, born Jan. 17, 1774, 
married ^X/^illiam Wallace ; Mary, born March 19, 1776, married Samuel 
Awl, of Paxtang ; Esther, born Sept. 17, 1778, married Dr. Henry 
Hall ; Sarah, born Jan. 5, 1781, married John Irwin ; Jean, born March 
19, 1783, married John Lyon ; William, born 1784, and died in infancy ; 
and William, born May 5, 1787. 

With this brief sketch, I shall leave the subject, hoping that, in 
the near future, a more competent writer may be able to give us a com- 
prehensive biography of William Maclay. The Scotch-Irish race to 
which he belonged, did heroic service on the Pennsylvania frontier, 
which must be considered in making up the history of the Common- 
wealth. In peace and war alike, they served the State and Nation with 
fidelity. We should cherish their memory, and faithfully preserve the 
record of their deeds. In performing this duty, we cannot be accu.sed 
of adulation ; but on the other hand, we shall be rendering a service to 
posterity in gathering from various sources the scattered materials 
which we hope to see woven into a complete history of the State. 



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